Great work (as usual) by WallyWorld:

twolvesblog.com/201008163095/minnesota-t...s-kevin-garnett.html

That is a great article!

Come to think of it, how many teams have been successful with one highly paid superstar? Even the Lakers would not be where they are today if they didn't fleece Memphis and get Pao Gasol.

As great of a player as KG was, we were really hampered with his contract and I think we gave in way too much when the team gave fat contracts to his "guys" that he recruited, like Mike James, Trenton Hassell, etc. If the article is correct, KG wanted Wally gone for the Blount/Davis combo. That was really the beginning of the end for me there as I thought Wally was a great player.

Even if you are a KG fan or not, you can't disagree with this post.

The worst part of his deal was that it didn't get grandfathered in under the new CBA, and killed us for years.

Stupid Stern.

College Wolf wrote:


Under the old CBA, what were the rules like? Why was the lack of grandfathering a bad thing?

singhcr wrote:


Honestly, I can't tell you the exact rules and differences without going to look it up, but there wasn't the luxury tax (very restrictive after implemented right off the bat), and new contracts had the cap limits (unlike KG's.) So, after the new CBA, people couldn't make as much as KG even if they wanted to. Since KG's contract counted the same under the new CBA and we weren't given relief, it took up a TON of our salary cap and made it harder for us to acquire other good players.

This is far from all being KG's fault, of course. He couldn't have predicted the new CBA and the Wolves getting screwed over when it was implemented.

Yeah if you really wanted to BLAME someone you of course blame McHale and Taylor. But alas KG's deal really did screw us over permanently. However, there is no excuse for: A. Drafting terribly, B. Making bone-headed deals, C. The Joe Smith incident, D. Not resigning Billups, E. Signing the wrong guys using what little flexibility we did have.

Those things are 50-60% of the problem here. The contract still was far too large for any NBA player at the time who had little accomplished career-wise. At the end of the day, you still have to sign him to it though.